The Relationship Between Age and Divisional Rank in Professional Mixed Martial Arts

Abstract

Physiological changes brought about by a person's aging process are known to negatively affect elite sports performance, but this may be delayed by skill mastery brought about by continued training. The intersection of these two separate processes causes a potential 'peak performance window' in many sports. Within MMA it has been shown that older competitors are more likely to lose individual bouts, especially due to strikes, and when they win it is most likely to be via a judge's decision. It has not been determined whether age has a long-term effect on success in MMA. This study divided the top 100 competitors in each MMA weight division into 5 ranking groups (RG) and used Bayesian ANOVA (BF 10 ), 95% credible interval plots and Bayesian Kendall's Tau (BF 10 ) to determine if competitor rankings are affected by their age, and if each division displays a different age profile. The results found that whilst there is a general pattern of older participants being ranked higher, middleweight was the only division where this was statistically relevant. It was found, however, that the heavier the mass limit of the division, the older the participants are across each RG. These results suggest that skill mastery may be of more short-term importance to successful performance in MMA than physiological ability, particularly in the heavier divisions, but physiological decrements effect lighter competitors earlier in their chronological age. This is potentially due to differing performance requirements between the different divisions.

Determination of model characteristics of martial mixed arts fighters

“…In order to be on the list of the top 15 fighters in the league in the light weight group, a fighter must win an average of 7.2 wins with 2.7 losses; in the medium weight group, a fighter must win an average of 9.6 wins with 3.5 losses; in the heavy weight group, a fighter must win an average of 8.7 wins with 3.7 losses. These data confirm a well-known pattern observed in martial arts, namely, in the middle weight categories, the number of fighters is greater than in light or heavy, and to get into the list of the top 15, a fighter needs to hold a greater number of fights [3,14,15]. Table 2 provides data on the percentage of wins, depending on the method of achieving them for each weight group, and the average value for all athletes.…”

“…The studies of Kirk [3,16] show that the age of the athletes in the national MMA championship is approximately 26.2 years old, while for the top athletes this figure is between 29 and 33 depending on the weight This study shows that the age is 31.8 years old that is significantly (older) more than in Olympic kinds of sport. This is explained by the fact that athletes pass a certain way (a series of wins) to reach the top of the rankings and can't achieve such results after one or two competitions (for example, like in the Olympic Games or the World Cup), as well as the retraining from other sports after reaching there a certain level, which demands several years [19,20,21].…”

“…The number of athletes involved in the sport is steadily increasing both in the world and in Russia, new specialized sports halls are opened and old wrestling and boxing halls are redesigned. Worth millions royalties of top fighters stimulate talented athletes to change one types of martial arts for MMA [2,3].…”

Doping in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC): A 4‐year epidemiological analysis

“…Ages of peak performance in sports have long been debated, and these have often been reported to range between mid-20s to early 30s. [13][14][15][16] It is thus understandable to witness that the majority of the sanctioned athletes were older than 30 years. At that age, fighters are either in their prime or have passed it, and maintaining previous high level-performances is key for career development and prosperity.…”

“…This finding may be related to the age of peak performance in MMA. Ages of peak performance in sports have long been debated, and these have often been reported to range between mid‐20s to early 30s 13–16 . It is thus understandable to witness that the majority of the sanctioned athletes were older than 30 years.…”